Tustin High School defensive line coach Brigham Harwell demonstrates to players how to maneuver through the football dummies for a drill he set up for them. ISAAC ARJONILLA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Brigham Harwell is the new defensive lineman coach at Tustin High School; he played college football at UCLA, followed by a brief campaign with the Washington Redskins. ISAAC ARJONILLA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Defensive tackle Keiti Iakopo runs through a defensive line drill that teaches the players how to shed the offensive line. ISAAC ARJONILLA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Junior defensive tackle and offensive guard Antonio Flores prepares to engage the football dummy during a defensive drill. ISAAC ARJONILLA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Junior offensive guard and defensive tackle Afif Achmadi bursts off the line and rips through the football dummy during a drill. ISAAC ARJONILLA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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A group of defensive players from the Tustin High School football team watch as coach Brigham Harwell demonstrates the proper technique to a defensive drill they were running. ISAAC ARJONILLA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Senior offensive tackle Michael Cooper rushes past coach Brigham Harwell during a series of drills the linemen were working on. ISAAC ARJONILLA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Brigham Harwell has a resume — and a personality — that constantly manage to impress.

The newest member of Tustin High’s football staff, defensive line coach Harwell is a former Tom Lemming All-American, UCLA defensive tackle, Washington Redskins free agent and United Football League player. Coaches call him passionate, a role model, a special human being. His cadre of young athletes responds to his commands easily, running drills in the hot summer weather.

The 6-foot-2-inch, 295-pound coach stands on the Tillers field, smiling as he watches his crew stretch before practice. This is where he wants to be.

“From day one, even in high school, I knew I wanted to be a teacher and a coach,” said, Harwell, 27, who lives in Norwalk.

Harwell, who joined in July, returns to familiar faces. Coach Greg Gano, who took over the Tustin program from Myron Miller in February, has taught Harwell since high school.

When Gano told him there was an opening earlier this year, it was a “no brainer,” Harwell said.

“[Harwell] is a leader in every sense of the word,” said Travis Brown, who played with Harwell at Los Altos and is also now Tustin’s offensive coordinator. “He’s been through so much and he has a story to tell, and I think that’s what drives him to help kids.”

Rough beginnings

Harwell’s life growing up proved to be no easy task. His mom Ruby Harwell had little money to take care of nine children on her own, and his dad left to Indiana when he was in fourth grade, Harwell said.

In sixth grade, he squeezed with his mom and younger brothers Brent and Byron into “the ol’ Thunderbird,” living in their car when they had nowhere else to go.Other times Harwell drifted among sleeping at friends’ houses, in parks or behind stores, hungry and on his own.

“He never dwelled on it, never felt sorry for himself,” Gano said. “You would never know that he had such humble beginnings, you would never guess.”

Harwell remembered sleeping outside was the worst, huddling with no sleeping bag or blankets for warmth and waking up with mosquito bites.

“I think certain nights I slept with my eyes open,” he said, still upbeat and laughing.

Yet Harwell talks openly about his childhood, smiling with appreciation for his mother’s hard work and no feelings of animosity.

Freshman year of high school, Harwell’s older brother Joe Williams was able to take him in, becoming his legal guardian .

“It was definitely challenging,” Harwell said of his childhood. “but gosh, when you’re that young, you don’t know any better. You think that’s the way life is.”

Rising up

Williams, who works at a bank, and his wife, Jamila Williams, gave the budding athlete a structured home , with a place to sleep, clothes on his back and food on the table.

“My brother taught me how to be a man; he was like a father to me,” Harwell said.

Williams made education an absolute first — a tall order for Harwell. But he managed all A’s and B’s in his classes, .

All the while, Harwell played defensive end under Gano, recording 68.5 sacks across his four years and winning three championships for the Conquerors. ranked as a “player of the year” and one of the top defensive ends in the nation, Harwell ended up at UCLA, majoring in history and starting in almost all Bruin games.

“Going from sleeping in a back yard with nothing to graduating from UCLA,” Harwell paused, thinking of the right word. “It’s amazing

Harwell then signed a free agent contract with the Washington Redskins and entered training camp, a nerve-wracking setting where “every day was an interview.”

When the Redskins released him, the defensive tackle found a better groove with the UFL’s New York Sentinels, . Since then he has worked with at-risk teens in the program Boys’ Town and created a company, Trench Hogs, to train and prepare young D-linemen for college programs.

On top of it all, Harwell will soon start teaching eighth-grade social studies at a private school in East Los Angeles, driving daily to Tustin for afternoon practices. He plans to apply for a teaching credential program as well, so that he can teach in public schools.

“I’m pretty much doing what I think God put me on this earth for,” Harwell said.

Tiller time

When Harwell steps on the field, his easygoing, smiling demeanor disappears.

Some colorful language leaves his mouth as the players fall to the ground doing pushups. He reminds them how close they were to a championship last year. In his intimidating, booming voice, he lectures that someone needs to “step up” and be a leader .

“When the kids don’t perform to what he expects them to be, he lets them know,” said Marc Estrada, Tustin’s strength and conditioning coach. But, Estrada added, Harwell is also the first to congratulate when they succeed.

“I get so happy because I get a chance to coach these kids and an opportunity to maximize their potential,” Harwell said. “It’s an easy group to coach…they want to be better.”

Sure enough, some of the players later start shouting out help to their teammates, “come on!” and “move your hips!”

The coaches are also quick to praise Harwell’s ability to connect with the young athletes and his strengths working the D-line.

“The first day Brigham was out there, we changed as a football team,” Gano said of his former player. “It just makes you very proud and lucky.”

For Tustin’s coaches, the goal is not just to make great football players, but to develop these kids into better people, Estrada and Brown said.

Prompted by Harwell, a shout erupts from the mass of athletes on the sunny field. “One, two, three, focus.”

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